Cigarette rod cutter



y 2, 1959 G. D. HORGAN 2,886,083

CIGARETTE ROD CUTTER Filed April 21, 1954 INVENTOR.

\\ esoRsE DANIEL HORGAN ATTORNEY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 12, 1959 G. D.HORGAN 2,886,083

CIGARETTE ROD CUTTER Filed April 21, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORGEORGE DANIEL ATTORNEY United States Patent 6 CIGARETTE ROD CU'ITERGeorge Daniel Horgan, Kenton, Harrow, England, assignor to AmericanMachine & Foundry Co., a corporation of New Jersey Application April 21,1954, Serial No. 424,684

Claims priority, application Great Britain July 28, 1953 Claims. (Cl.146101) This invention relates to cigarette cut-offs i.e., machines forsevering cigarette lengths from a travelling cigarette rod deliveredfrom a continuous cigarette rod making machine.

The invention more particularly relates to cigarette cut-offs of thetype comprising a rotating head or carrier which supports a rotary flyknife so that the latter has a compound movement which consists inrotation about its own axis and an orbital movement about the axis ofthe carrier.

Hitherto the cutting edge of the fly knife has been eccentric to theaxis of rotation of the knife and as the edge has to be sharpened duringthe operation of the cut-off difliculties have been experienced in thesharpening arrangements and in maintaining the correct shape of thecutting edge. In another type of cut-off a disc knife has been employedbut such requires an axial reciprocation of the knife carrier and alsothe coacting ledger equal to the speed of the cigarette with theattendant disadvantage of reciprocation of relatively heavy masses.

The fly knife, however, has the advantage that the period of cutting maybe so short that axial reciprocation of the carrier and ledger may beeliminated.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved form of cut-off bywhich the advantages of both forms of cut-off above described areobtained Without the disadvantage thereof. i

According to the invention the cigarette cut-off comprises a rotarycarrier or head upon which a rotary fly knife is mounted, the cuttingedge of such knife being concentric with the axis of rotation of theknife, the timing of the movement of the cut-off being such that whenthe leading edge or zone of the knife is in position to commence thecutting operation the axis of the rotation of the knife is spaced fromthe plane containing the axes of the carrier and cigarette rod orledger, whereby the cutting action of the knife simulates that of aneccentric edged fly knife.

Preferably the timing of the knife is such that a cutting action occursin non-successive revolutions of the carrier.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a cigarette cutting attachment accordingto the invention.

Figure 2 is a slightly enlarged sectional plan taken on line II-II ofFigure 1.

Figure 3 is a diagram showing the successive positions of the kniferelatively to the cigarette rod during a noncutting revolution.

Figure 4 is an elevation of a sharpening attachment and indicating thesuccessive positions of the knife during sharpening.

In carrying the invention into effect according to one convenient modeby way of example, a driving shaft 1 is provided with a pair of axiallyspaced helical gears 2 and .3, which are keyed by a suitable key 23, to.the shaft 1 and are located within a gear casing 4.

2,886,083 Patented May 12,- 1959 The helical gears 2, 3 mesh with a pairof gears 5 and 6 respectively located within the casing 4, one of which,5, is mounted upon and drives a sun gear spindle 7, the other gear 6being concentric with the spindle 7. The gear 6 has fixed thereto adriving sleeve 8 surrounding the spindle 7 and projecting through anaperture 24 in the end wall 9 of the gear casing.

On the outer end of the driving sleeve 8 a rotary or carrier 10 issecured.

This head or carrier 10 is in the form of a casing and encloses a sungear 11 which is keyed to the outer end of the sun gear spindle 7. Thesun gear 11 meshes with a pinion 12 which is provided with a knifespindle 13 to the end of which is secured a stud shaft 25 supported in asuitable bearing 27 of carrier 10.

A knife mounting member 14 is secured on the end of stud shaft 25. Theknife mounting member comprises a pair of gripping plates, 14a and 1412between which the knife is held.

To provide support allowing the knife mounting member 14- to rotate, itis supported on a knife spindle 13 with a stud shaft 29 suitably securedto pinion 12 by means of a bolt 31. Stud shaft 29 lies in the same axisas stud shaft 25 and is also supported free to rotate by a bearing 33held in housing 10.

It is self evident that the rotary motion imparted by gear 11 to pinion12 is transmitted by the pinion 12 through shaft 25 to knife mountingmember 14 and consequently to the knife 15. i

The knife 15 is of the wafer type and has a cutting edge 15a which isconcentric with the axis of rotation, i.e., the axis of the knifespindle 13. Conveniently the portion of the knife adjacent the cuttingedge is laterally off-set to the shank portion which is located betweenthe gripping plates 14a and 14b.

The carrier 10 is provided with a counterbalance weight 16 diametricallyopposite the knife mounting and gear.

The gearing between the driving shaft 1 and sun gear spindle 7 are suchthat the sun gear is driven in the same direction as the head orcarrier.

The gear ratios are such that the knife 15 moves into the cuttingposition once for each two revolutions of the carrier 10.

The position of the knife spindle 13 when the leading edge or zone ofthe cutting edge 15a thereof moves in cutting relation with thecigarette rod 17 (Fig. 1) is above the horizontal plane a-a containingthe axes of the carrier and the cigarette rod sothat by the continuedcompound movement of the knife about its own axis and the axis of thecarrier the cutting edge 15a moves along a path to provide a cuttingoperation which simulates that of an eccentric edge knife rotating onlyabout its own axis.

According to one arrangement, by way of example, for the severing of1000 cigarettes per minute, the following gear ratios and speeds aresuitable: the gear ratio of the sun gear 11 and knife spindle 13 is 7/2:1; the speed of the sun gear is 1600 r.p.m.; for a completerevolution of the knife 15 about its own axis the carrier 10 rotates240.

With such conditions the position of the knife 15 during a non-cuttingrevolution (see Fig. 3) is rearwardly displaced 180 with regard to theposition on a cutting revolution (see Fig. 1) so that the knife willmiss the cigarette rod as indicated by the successive positions of theknife edge shown in Fig. 3.

It will be appreciated that the cigarette rod passes through a cuttingledger tube 18 and due to the short period of time that the knife takesto pass through the rod such tube can be mounted fixedly without thecustomary lateral reciprocation.

head

It Will be appreciated that by the use of a fly knife having a cuttingedge which is concentric with the axis of revolution of the knife thesharpening of such edge is greatly facilitated. Figure 4 shows amounting for a sharpening disc 19 and a burring disc 20 adjustablycarried by the mounting 21. The figure also indicates successivepositions of the knife edge during the sharpening operation.

The invention hereinabove described may be varied in construction Withinthe scope of the'claims, for the particular device selected toillustrate the invention is but one of many possible embodiments of thesame. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted to the precisedetails of the structure shown and described.

What is claimed is:

1. A cut-off comprising a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported insaid stationary housing, a knife spindle carrier driven by said shaft, agear mounted in said carrier, a pinion driven by said gear and supportedin the periphery of said carrier, a knife spindle connected to saidpinion, a segment fly knife cutter having a shank portion and a cuttingedge concentric to the axis of said knife spindle and mounted on saidknife spindle for cutting, said cutting edge being laterally off-setrelative to the shank portion so as to reduce the contact of the sidesof the knife with the material to be cut to a minimum.

2. A cut-off comprising a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported insaid stationary housing, a knife spindle carrier driven by said shaft, agear mounted in said carrier, a pinion driven by said gear and supportedin the periphery of said carrier, a knife spindle connected to saidpinion, a segment fly knife cutter having a cutting edge concentric tothe axis of said knife spindle and mounted on said knife spindle forcutting wherein the portion of the segment fly knife adjacent to thecutting edge is laterally off-set to the shank portion to so reduce thecontact of the sides of the knife with the material to be cut at aminimum.

3. A cut-off comprising a stationary supporting ledger to hold materialto be cut, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in saidstationary housing, a plurality of driving gears co-axially mounted onsaid drive shaft and adapted to be replaced by other size driving gears,a first driven gear driven by one of said driving gears, a rotary knifespindle carrier co-axially attached to said first driven gear, a seconddriven gear driven by another of said driving gears, a sun geartraveling Within said carrier driven by this other of said driving gearsand in the same direction as said carrier and at a different rate thanthe carrier, said driven gears being adaptable to be replaced by othersize driven gears to effect different driving ratios between the saidcarrier and the said sun gear, a pinion driven by said sun gear in anopposite direction, a knife carrying spindle connected to and rotated bysaid pinion in said opposite direction, a segment fly knife mounted onsaid knife spindle and having a cutting edge concentric to the axis ofsaid knife spindle, so that an eccentric cutting action by said knife iseffected by the reverse rotation of the carrier with respect to theknife.

4. A severing device comprising a housing, a drive shaft supported insaid housing, a plurality of driving gears co-axially mounted on saiddrive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of said driving gears ata predetermined ratio, a rotary spindle carrier co-axially attached tosaid first driven gear, a second driven gear driven by another of saiddriving gears at a different predetermined ratio than said firstmentioned ratio, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by thisother of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrierand at a different rate than the carrier, a pinion driven by said sungear in an opposite direction, a spindle connected to and rotated bysaid pinion in said opposite direction and a severing element secured tosaid spindle and rotated thereby in an orbital path of travel.

5. A severing device comprising a severing station past which materialto be severed travels, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported insaid stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axially mounted onsaid drive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of said drivinggears, a rotary spindle carrier co-axially attached to said first drivengear, a spindle rotatably supported on said carrier, a severing elementsecured to said spindle, a second driven gear driven by the other ofsaid driving gears, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven bythis other of said driving gears and in the same direction as saidcarrier and at a different rate than the carrier, said driving anddriven gear sizes being such that a severing action by said severingelement occurs at the same severing station but not at successivetraverses of the severing element past the severing station.

6. A cut-orf comprising a stationary supporting station to supportmaterial to be cut, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported insaid stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axially mounted onsaid drive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of said drivinggears, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axially attached to said firstdriven gear, a spindle supported in said carrier, a knife mounted onsaid spindle, a second driven gear driven by the other of said drivinggears, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by this other ofsaid driving gears and in the same direction as said carrier and at adifferent rate than the carrier, said driving and driven gear sizesbeing such and the timing and arrangement of the knife being such that acutting action occurs at the same supporting station duringnon-successive passes of the knife past the supporting station.

7. A cut-off comprising a stationary supporting station to support thematerial to be cut, a knife sharpening station, a stationary housing, adrive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gearsco-axially mounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear driven byone of said driving gears, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axiallyattached to said first driven gear, a segment fly knife supported onsaid spindle carrier, a second driven gear driven by the other of saiddriving gears, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by thisother of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrierand at a different rate than the carrier, said driving and driven gearsizes being such that a sharpening action of said segment fly knifeoccurs at the knife sharpening station as the cutting edge of the knifetravels in a concentric arc.

8. A cut-off comprising a stationary supporting station to support thematerial to be cut, a knife sharpening station, a stationary housing, adrive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gearsco-axially mounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear driven byone of said driving gears, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axiallyattached to said first driven gear, a segment fly knife supported onsaid spindle carrier, a second driven gear driven by the other of. saiddriving gears, a sun gear traveiing within said carrier driven by thisother of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrierand at a different rate than the carrier, said driving and driven gearsizes being such that a sharpening action of said segment fly knifeoccurs at the knife sharpening station while the cutting edge of theknife travels in a concentric are but not at successive traverses of thecutting knife past the sharpening station.

9. A cut-off comprising a supporting station to support the material tobe cut, a knife sharpening station, a stationary housing, a drive shaftsupported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axiallymounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of saiddriving gears at one ratio, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axiallyattached to said first driven gear, a

segment fly knife supported on said spindle carrier, a second drivengear driven by the other of said driving gears at a different ratio, asun gear traveling within said carrier driven by this other of saiddriving gears and in the same direction as said carrier said drivingratios being such that a sharpening action of said segment fly knifeoccurs at the same sharpening station during each alternate traverse ofthe segment fly knife past said cutting station.

10. A cut-off comprising a supporting station to support the material tobe cut, a sharpening station, a stationary housing, a drive shaftsupported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axiallymounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear, driven by one of saiddriving gears, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axially attached tosaid first driven gear, a knife attached to and rotatable on saidspindle carrier, a second driven gear driven by the other of saiddriving gears, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by thisother of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrierand at a different rate than the carrier, said driving and driven gearsizes being such that the sharpening occurs during one revolution andthe cutting action by said knife occurs on the next revolutionalternately as the carrier rotates.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,851,334 Stein Mar. 29, 1932 2,093,323 Lamoreaux Sept. 14, 19372,140,720 Ruau Dec. 20, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS 463,577 Great Britain Apr.2, 1937 676,387 Germany June 2, 1939 652,842

Great Britain May 2, 1951

